Environmental exposure to airborne particle matter has been implicated in the dramatic increase in clinically significant asthma and respiratory distress. A number of on-going monitoring studies have demonstrated variability in ambient and indoor concentrations and composition of particulate matter in urban and rural areas of the Northeast region. However, no studies to date have attempted to link these ambient pollutant concentrations to biologically relevant alterations in the proteome that may result in pulmonary pathophysiology. The proposed project will address this need by investigating the specific hypothesis that exposure to airborne particles collected at urban, rural and anthropogenic source specific monitoring sites in the northeast region contain unique composition, which produce distinct pathological protein profiles in lung epithelium. This differential ability to affect lung biology promotes disproportionate respiratory health impacts in the State of New Hampshire and across the northeast region. This work will provide qualitative and quantitative evidence to assist policy-makers as they attempt to determine whether existing standards are adequately protective for disproportionately affected populations, The specific objectives of this study include identification and quantification of airborne particulate in various locations across the northeast region. Genomic and proteomic techniques will be used to determine the cellular effects of relevant concentrations of particulate matter on human epithelial cells in culture. This work will support the identification of protein biomarkers that can then be taken back into human studies to prove causal relationships between exposure to airborne particulate and pulmonary pathobiology, This proposal affords an opportunity to cost effectively evaluate the ambient particulate matter 1 (PM) concentration and composition while also investigating exposure and plausible mechanisms of toxicity and variability across the state and region.